DeAI
by Facon de Parler
Summary: You'd better be a poker or a joker.


I did not own Gakuen Alice

Warning: characters may be slightly OOC

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**DeAI** means "**encounter**" in Japanese.

It was a one-shot happened in the past.  
This story was an omake of my other fanfic, "**Superstars**".

**One thing to know before reading:  
**The Hyuuga family has the following members:  
Misaki, Natsume, Koko, Hotaru, Youichi  
_(listed in descending order of their age)_

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**DeAI**

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–

The sun just woke up. It was reluctant to use its energy to light up the place. One could only hear birds humming, as they were working hard to attract their mates. This place was rather rural compared to Tokyo. A boy was sitting on the ground. His existence among the uninteresting background could make a melancholy piece of art work.

He did not know how long he had slept on the bullet train.

He did not pay attention to which stop he exited the train.

He did not mind sleeping inside a lavatory of a train station.

He did not care what train he was stepping in again.

He did not bother to count how many days he had spent riding on trains, and sleeping in restrooms.

He had no idea how he ended up here, curling up himself by the roadside.

He was a 10 year-old kid, the third child in his family.

A certain number of days ago, after making sure there was enough cash in his wallet, he packed a few clothes in his backpack, and left the Hyuuga's mansion alone.

Now, he was in the middle of somewhere in Japan. Well, he did not take any planes or ships, so he was, most likely, still in this gigantic island located amid the Pacific Ocean.

His action was incomprehensible. He forwent the comfortable queen-size bed in his own bedroom, sacrificed the opportunity to enjoy nice big meals made by the servant, gave up the chance to take a nice refreshing shower in the extravagantly decorated bathroom, etc, etc. He chose to escape an enjoyable luxurious life.

To him, it was a pain to live in an elite family. His parents were famous artistes who earned lots of money. Their children were all smart and good-looking, well, except him.

No matter how hard he studied, he could never be the top three in his grade. All his other four siblings could achieve that with ease.

His siblings got attention wherever they went. For his two sisters, boys fell on their knees; as for his two brothers, you could never imagine how many fan-clubs had been set up for them.

_"What? You came from the Hyuuga family? O! That's… unexpected."_

That was a common reaction classmates gave when they knew his last name was "Hyuuga".

Of course there were some friendly students who would approach him.

_"Hey, can you introduce me to your brothers / sisters?"_

_"What do your brothers / sisters like to do in leisure time?"_

_"Can you help me give this present to your brothers / sisters?"_

_"Do you know what kind of girls / boys your brothers / sisters like?"_

No one cared to know about him. No one asked what he liked to do or what kind of girls he liked. No one gave him presents.

His parents were proud of their kids, probably except him. When they talked about his brothers and sisters, their eyes would glow with satisfaction. His siblings had huge charisma. They never needed to seek for attention. It just fell onto them. They did not talk a lot, but people would keep asking their opinions, as if begging to hear their voices.

All this had never happened to him.

What was the point of living in such a family where he had no stance, no importance at all?

He had had enough stress.

He had had enough neglect from others.

Since they did not care about him, since he was not one of the elites, fine, he left on his own.

He thought he would be happy for himself when he did so; in fact, he felt wretched.

Deep in his heart, which he did not recognize by himself, he secretly hoped that his family members would worry about him. He wanted to get proof that he was being cared of. He desperately waited for others to lay their eyes on him.

But, what if they did not?

What if they did not mind having one son or sibling vanished?

What if they did not even bother to find him?

Such thoughts were depressing. It was even more disheartening when a person attempted to do something in order to _anticipate_ something, and then all these efforts turned out to be of no use.

The higher the expectation, the greater is the disappointment.

He did not know what he should do now.

"Hey!"

A resonant voice distracted him. He raised his head and saw a skinny girl with short dark-green hair. She looked… odd. Who would have two stretches of longer curly hair dangling in front of her ears while the rest of the hair was short? Who would wear undersized clothes to look like a beggar?

"Do you get lost?" asked the girl. The boy shook his head.

"Are you hungry?"

Silence…

"You can take it if you want." The girl handed over a piece of cake to him, but he ignored her.

"Why are you sitting here?"

Silence…

"Did you run away from home?" She saw he had a backpack beside him.

Shouldn't she have self-awareness? When she did not receive any response, it meant no one wanted to pay attention to her. A typical person should just leave. It was wise to shrink back from difficulties.

"Hey, you aren't dumb, are you?" She was not a normal person.

"Hey! It's rude not to respond!"

The boy could not control his temper anymore, "Did anyone ever tell you that you're very noisy and troublesome, Permy?"

"So you're not dumb, as I've thought." The girl seemed to neglect his mean remarks. She realized he was wearing decent clothes. She wondered why he looked so disgruntled even he had such nice garments.

"You're running away from home, aren't you?" asked the girl. "It'll be a pity if you don't go around."

Then she had an impulsive idea, "Hey, let me be your tour guide. I can give you a ride on my bike too. How's it?"

The girl wore an inviting smile. Without knowing why, she was trustworthy in his eyes.

"Com'on! Don't tell me you don't have the courage to come with me."

How could a boy be intimidated by a girl? And as she had said, it was a rare chance to be so carefree. He had no reason not to enjoy his trip.

"By the way, I'm not Permy." The girl complained to the boy as they were walking towards her bike. "Sumire, that's my name. How about you, what's your name?"

The boy did not answer. The truth was, he _hated_ his name.

His name was given by his mother, who fell in love with a song called Kokomo when she got pregnant. Stupid as it sounded, right? She chose to use it as a name for the child she gave birth to. Later on, she realized Kokomo was a city's name in America, so she decided to drop the 'mo'. That was why he got the name Koko.

The whole reasoning was ridiculous to him.

All his siblings had their special names, which sounded so pleasant and unique.

The girl saw that the boy remained silent at her question. It was fine if he did not want to tell her his name. Yet, she wondered why he looked so gloomy. It was sad to see a person looking unhappy.

She decided to say something to cheer up the atmosphere between them, "You know, Shiga was a beautiful place. It has temples and castles. It also has the largest lake in Japan. The lake shore roads are scenic. The cherry trees in the northern part are awesome……"

Her descriptions ended when they reached her bike. She asked him to sit on the back. Koko wondered if she could ride the bike carrying two people.

"Don't worry. You aren't heavier than piles of newspapers and bottles of milk, right?" Sumire asked lightheartedly. She used the bike to deliver newspapers and milk among the residence every morning.

"By the way, you've got money, right?" Koko took out some cash from his pockets. Sumire screamed, "My God! That's so much more than enough!"

Well, there was a lot more cash in his wallet. Koko stayed silent.

"It doesn't need a lot to eat good stuff. Sometimes, some small restaurants made really nice food."

Then, their trip began. Sight-seeing and eating were the things they did.

The girl seemed comfortable to bring him here and there to try new food, but she never ordered anything.

"I still haven't finished my piece of cake."

Or "I'm not hungry."

Or "I forgot to bring enough money."

Or "I never borrow money from others."

She had some kind of stubborn dignity inside her that resent receiving help from others.

Being fed up with her excuses, Koko made orders for two persons and passed some food to Sumire, "I want to try more varieties, but there is too much food. Help me to eat them, or else they'll go to the trash. Oh! You won't ask me to pay you for eating the food, will you?"

He did not forget to fake a pitiful look.

He was quite a cunning boy.

Time flied, and the sun finished its job. After a satisfying dinner, they walked along the shore with full stomachs. It was a wonderful day. Koko enjoyed the trip a lot. He especially liked her accompaniment. He felt relaxed by her side. Maybe it was alright for him to express his frustration to her? He started talking a lot about his thoughts, and the girl listened to him quietly.

Once Koko finished everything, Sumire began her verbal bombardment at him.

"Did your family members beat you up? Did they starve you? Did they ignore you? Did they tell you they want you to disappear from sight?"

Silence...

Sumire moved on, "If the answers are no, what you've just said about they don't care for you, is likely to be your pure imagination. You simply think too much."

"And did you say your siblings are better than you, and you feel stressful? Hey! Every one is unique. It's pointless to compare with other people. You have your own strengths, and they have theirs. Why do you choose to live in their shadows? I find it pleasant to listen to you. Maybe it's something you can make good use of?"

Sumire switched to another topic, "To be frank, I don't think you are ugly, but surly not too striking. At least my dad looks better than you. Yet, what's the point of good-looking? Huh? My dad is handsome, but so what? He's a…" She swallowed the last few words: "piece of shit".

"Anyways, if you really care about your appearance, well… that's something inborn. Maybe you can go for surgery? But I don't think appearance is that important for men. Above average is sufficient. Ah!! If you do want to be attractive, you'd better be a poker or a joker."

Seeing his confusion, Sumire elaborated, "Poker as in poker-face, as for joker, don't tell me you don't know its literal meaning? Just don't put on such a miserable look. You look like you're crying. Boys shouldn't cry, only girls can."

"That's not fair!" Koko opposed.

"Life is never fair." Sumire bluntly replied. Koko realized Sumire was way too sophisticated as a child, maybe her childhood was beyond his imagination.

Suddenly, Sumire said, "Hey, you wait for me here. I want to get something." She wanted to find some souvenirs for him, so she rode on her bike and left. Koko looked up at the starlit sky. The night was bright, and his heart felt so light. Out of the blue, a familiar old melody started humming in his head, What a Wonderful World.

"He's there!!!" A woman's excited squeal streaked across the air.

A black limousine stopped right behind him. An elegant woman came out of the car, looking relieved, "Thank God, we've found you!"

With tears over her face, she gave a suffocated hug to Koko. The driver standing at the back dialed a cell-phone, "We've found him. The location was the eastern shore of Lake Biwa."

Some time later, few more limousines arrived. The whole Hyuuga family came from Tokyo to Shiga to find the runaway family member.

"Hey boy, your choice of place is good." A tall girl with pink hair made fun of Koko.

"I expect you to show me around the place." A girl with dark hair teased him.

A raven-hair boy came closer and used his fist to hit Koko's head from the top. A brown-hair kid giggled at the sight. A tall man patted on Koko's head and said, "Let's go and take a good rest!"

"Wait! I am waiting for…" Koko kept turning his head until he saw Sumire standing far, far away. Once their eyes met, Sumire put on a smile, waved her hands to farewell, and rode away as quickly as she could.

"Hey!" Koko yelled from behind. He tried to run after her, but his way was blocked by his family members.

"What's wrong?" The tall girl asked.

They all turned their heads to the direction which Koko was looking at, but Sumire was already out of sight. Koko was puzzled and disappointed.

He had not asked for her contacts.

He had not even told her his name.

She came to his life, and then gone. Everything was like a dream.

Carrying some plants on the basket in front of her bike, Sumire continued her ride. She planned to give those to Koko as souvenirs. When she came back, she could see several limousines and some well-dressed adults and children hugging Koko. His family was there for him. All of a sudden, she realized they came from different worlds. She did not want to greet him or his family. She just wanted to disappear from his sight. Deep in her heart, she was ashamed of her humble background.

It was a blessing that they came across each other, even just for a day. It had been few years since she had a nice meal outside. The fantasy finally came to an end. It was time to go back home, back to the reality.

Since that day, Koko came to Shiga whenever he had time. However, he soon heard that her family had moved, and no one knew where they had gone. He did not have photographs of her, not anything.

All he knew about her was her name.

–

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I hope you like the story. **Please review**!

And you're invited to read my long fanfic, **Superstars **!


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